Which Laptop should I buy?

[doctorarnab]

I want to buy a laptop for home use in the price range of 30k-35k. i use mostly for surfing, office program and some movie viewing. i have shortlisted Lenovo Y500 77611AQ model for this. is this a good buy? what other models of HP/Compaq/Acer can I consider. Please give ur user experience. all suggestions would be welcome. also i want to know whether the lenovo model comes with a TV tuner card or I have to buy it separately?
Please reply.
Thanks.
Dr. Arnab

 

[ronweasley]

HP pavilion notebooks are good fro home use

hp has a current offer under which u get a tv tuner free for certain models(all hp pavilions except dv1743

 

[hailgautam]

Go for DELL Inpiron 6400, it is very good value for money - probably the least expensive comp as compared spec to spec with all other manufacturer, good service. Bonus: you have (some limited amount of) configuration capability (compared to US site that is).

 

[Sourabh]

You should give a visit to the HP Compaq and Acer dealers in your city. Aspire 5101ANWLMi should be the best deal currently in the market. Its priced around 35k.

The Lenovo and LG laptops you have mentioned in the other thread are based on Celeron M processors, come with only 256MB of RAM. That is way too low, atleast 512MB is recommended. Budget laptops does not mean crippled laptops. It is high time manufacturers understand that fact. You will find some other laptops from Compaq catering to your budget to. However, if you do stick with the Lenovo or LG - upgrade the RAM by 512MB after the purchase. 3-3.5k is all what it would take. I find the LG laptops to have the best screens, plus it comes with a full 103 key layout keyboard(a rarity) I would personally stay away with the Lenovo's except their thinkpad series.

Hope this cleared some of your doubts.

edit:

This Lenovo model doesn't come with a so called free tv-tuner device. Although HP has a scheme on select notebooks to offer free tv tuners after purchase, I personally feel it is not a good idea. You are indirectly paying for the tv-tuner which you may or may not need. You can get external USB based tv tuner devices for 4k or so.

 

[doctorarnab]

Thanks a lot saurabh! that sure is informative. one more thing- where do i get the full specs of the acer one? is it a centrino? thanks again for enlightening a non technical person like me. keep replying.

 

[Sourabh]

No, its not a Centrino notebook. It has an AMD processor which is capable of 64-bit computing. The onboard graphics on the Xpress 1100 chipset is the one of most powerful onboard graphics and is Windows Vista Premium Ready. Product page here.

All other stuff are pretty much normal found in all the notebooks these days like the 15.4" WS, 60GB hdd, wifi, dvd rw and an average 2 hrs battery life.

 

[doctorarnab]

Hi saurabh,
the acer laptop u suggested has a really gr8 config at a very reasonable price. acer has also advertised that very model in todays newspapers. but the retailer whom i trust very much told me that acer laptops in general have problems with their batteries. they last for half an hour after 6 months of use. what is ur opinion regarding this? also the LG model now comes with 512DDR2 and 60GB SATA HDD. what should i do? im confused. pls help.
Thanks in advance.

 

[Sourabh]

It is the very nature of the batteries themselves. With repeated charging-discharging cycles, they are bound to wear out. Acer uses Sanyo batteries, while the internet was down with exploding batteries from Sony for just about every laptop manufacturer in 2006- Acer was the only manufacturer which was unaffected. Personally I wouldn't worry about the battery, coz it will affect every notebook with time. The batteries don't die all of a sudden in 6 months, the battery life just decreases due to the usage. However, one year down the line you can always invest in an additional battery. But that is not something which should affect your buying decision currently. Buying a budget notebook, your last concern should be the battery life. Getting a sturdy notebook with a decent config in your budget is the main thing. If you can live with a 1.5-2hrs battery life, then you should go with the Acer notebook. The other laptops don't have any significant improvement in terms of battery life either. Do they?

I am Sourabh btw

 

[doctorarnab]

Sorry for the spelling mistake Sourabh. dont mind. well u have almost convinced me. now i m goin to buy this laptop only. one more thing i want to ask you though. the acer.co.in site does not give a detailed config about this particular model. i also tried the hyperlink u gave in ur reply. it shows the generic 5100 series. i also googled this model name. all it throws up are news items about its launch. can u give me a link to detailed configs? Another query- (perhaps i am now looking like the guy in Franklin Tempelton ad who boards a flight with a parachute pack on his back ); does a Turion based laptop get too hot to keep on the lap? people say that it may cause difficulty in having chinlren later! Haaa Haaaaa. just joking. but do answer my query. u really are an encyclopedia on tech matters. is tech ur profession or just a passion?
keep up the good work.

 

[Sourabh]

No, Turion's run pretty cool and are not known for heat issues. Biggest thing which contributes for the notebooks to heat up are dedicated GPU's, which this notebook doesn't have. So there is nothing to worry about in that respect. But having a notebook on your lap for long hours is certainly not advisable. A notebook should always be kept on a flat surface like a table or desk if you plan to use it for long hours. There have been reports that using laptops on laps does lead to infertility in extreme cases.

As for the config, that page is pretty much it. Check this for more info. You should check about the availability of this model in your city. Or else, settle for some other notebook.

I am a student and this is just my passion like for most on this forum.

 

[Tech Geek]

Go for DELL Inpiron 6400, it is very good value for money - probably the least expensive comp as compared spec to spec with all other manufacturer, good service. Bonus: you have (some limited amount of) configuration capability (compared to US site that is).

Agreed totally

 

[Sourabh]

Guys the basic Inspiron with a modest Core Duo T2050, bare minimum 512MB RAM and a Combo drive itself costs 47k in India.